Government and Politics
It has been a busy year in Politics (what an understatement!), and the Department has been keeping up with the twists and turns of global events. The Department looks slightly different from last year. In September, Mrs Alexandra Eldred became Head of Department, and alongside Mr Chris Reid, welcomed Mr Dominic Nelder to the Politics team. We also greeted two new classes of Lower Sixth students. The academic year commenced in the wake of the EU referendum. The country was divided: the defeated Remainers versus the victorious Leavers, and many said the issue was too complex to have been put to the electorate directly. Corbyn’s Labour Party seemed to be suffering from intense factionalism, and ‘Brexit Britain’ was under the leadership of Britain’s second female prime minister, a Remainer, Theresa May. The Lower Sixth students sunk their teeth into UK politics, following the party conferences and challenge to Corbyn’s leadership with great interest. This intensified as the year progressed, and gained momentum with the Supreme Court case concerning the triggering of Article 50, and May’s announcement of a snap general election. On the other side of the Atlantic, by September the race for the White House was really heating up and the Upper Sixth students were fixated. They conducted a successful mock US election in College, running votes in their Houses and counting the ballots the next day. Following the election of Donald Trump on 8 November there has not been a lesson that has commenced without the latest headline. The Upper Sixth has been fully engaged with what has been going on in the USA and it has been fantastic to debate complex issues with them. The Morley Society has been active this year. The students prepared an extension session with activities for the Scholars at The Prep. Pablo Espona (L6, L) delivered a lecture. The activities helped to explain the US election, and the
similarities and differences between the US and the UK systems of government. Furthermore, in the run up to the General Election, Terezia Michalikova (L6, Ch), Charles O’Bryan (L6, BH), Anna McIntyre (L6, Q), Thomas Maddinson (L6, S), and Pablo Espona interviewed candidates Martin Horwood and Alex Chalk in Chapel. Finally, representatives from Croft Solicitors came to College in May to talk to the Society about the Article 50 court case. Overall it has been a year full of interest, debate and discussion.
Mrs Alexandra Eldred
History
We have been joined, this academic year, in the Centenary (‘New’) Block by Mrs Sarah Dawson and Mr Dominic Nelder. They have been busily promoting reading alongside a notably active approach towards the teaching and learning of History: the air in New Block has of late been thick with the hum of Spitfires and kamikaze pilots, and every time Rooms 1 or 2 are visited, it turns out that they’ve been re-designated – most lately as Japan, Egypt and Arabia. The History and Politics Morley Society has been similarly active throughout the year, with various moustachioed bootleggers, Elvis, the odd Roman, a 1940s RAF pilot (in immaculate lipstick), a 1960s SNCC activist (in regulation dungarees) and a singularly unreformed nun all visiting Newick House orchard for the elderflower pre-prandials. Dr Kristofer Allerfeldt of the University of Exeter, without ever dipping into apologia, got Morley going with his challenging of conceptions that massive resistance in America’s South was driven simply by redneck beer-swilling racists or peacocking governors. His engagement as a university teacher with the issues facing school historians as they mature in the subject was both refreshing and a fantastic advertisement for Exeter’s teaching.
C Heardman (3rd) and Archie Faskin (3rd and descendent of Private Alexander Faskin of the Gordon Highlanders) helpfully team up to demonstrate for the group exactly what, and what not, to wear for the foggy Somme battlefields in October!
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The Cheltonian 2016-2017
As the centenary of the First World War also matures, the Third Form pupils picked up the OC baton, following on from Gallipoli 2015, by again taking poppies and their independent research out to specific OC graves and memorials. Last year we stood knee deep in the Aegean and noted of our Gallipoli OCs that it beggared belief that they could survive the lofty Nek and Chunuk Bair… only to face the Somme in 1916. At Thiepval we found family members for Archie Faskin (H): Private Alexander Faskin of the Gordon Highlanders, killed in November 1916, and for Joe Murphy (L), who went rather quiet (for a bit!) on seeing his great-great-uncle’s name, Lt Col Maurice Nicholl Kennard, at the very head of lists running panel after panel around one of the central pillars, as senior Commanding Officer of the West Yorkshires. Kennard was killed in the ‘Big Push’ of 1 July, leading the Bradford Pals up a particularly deadly slope into No Man’s Land, just a bit further north, at Serre. A ‘new’ cemetery for Cheltonians was Flat Iron Copse, a very beautiful 1916 site in the heart of the Somme: the valley was the main supply route during attempts to advance the line at High Wood. We have two OCs here: Lieutenant James Hunt (1908-1913, Xt) and Second Lieutenant Desmond Scott (1910-1914, H). Dogged ongoing research by fellow OC Paddy Stevens (1967-1971, BH), at the National Archives in Kew, recently turned up a poignant list of Scott’s personal effects as found on him when he died, aged 19: ‘a prismatic compass, knife, fountain pen case containing 3 watches and chain, 1 wrist watch (glass broken), flask, prayer book, 4 pipes, tobacco pouch, 2 cigarette cases, 2 cigarette holders, lighter, silver pencil, and whistle’. Paddy
Tommy and Fritz enjoy the warmth of the Old Blighty Tearooms, La Boisselle, Somme
Christowe boys out in No Man’s Land, the Somme, remembering Captain Edward Matthey, who died with his men, July 1 1916
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